I rewarded myself alright. After successfully completing seven days of the cabbage soup diet, I rewarded myself with a carb day. I ate eggs for breakfast. No carbs there. But for lunch I ate some mini tacos. And eggs. But not the kind that hens lay. The kind that Brach's makes. I ate an entire bag and a half. Then I ate pasta for dinner. I felt SO GUILTY! And I was SO sick of those eggs by the end of the day. I even had a couple of canker sores in my mouth from all the sugar. But the mayhem didn't end there...

Today is freedom day. It's the day after my 7 day diet is over. It's reward day. I thought about what I would reward myself with for the last two days. Mostly, I thought about those brach's malted milk ball eggs. But also, I thought about a baked potato since the one last Tuesday night that was allowed was so heavenly! All totalled, I lost SIX PLUS POUNDS. The scale was at 139.2 this morning. It started at 145.6!!! 

I learned A LOT while on this diet. It was a lot like fasting because I realized how powerful my body is over me. It tries to dictate what it wants me to feed it. During this diet, I took control over it. There was a struggle and I am happy to report that I won. I never did give in or cheat on this diet. I followed it strictly with one exception. I drank a tablespoon of soy milk for a couple of the days in my tea because soy milk keeps me from having hot flashes. Other than that, I stuck to it with faithfulness.

Another thing I learned was how creative we can get with fruits and vegetables. There are SO many ways to prepare them! I couldn't have any milk products except for a pat of butter on Tuesday night and up to 8 glasses of skim milk on Day 5. So, I learned that you can use roasted garlic as a great dip for a steamed artichoke or smeared on endive. Roasted asparagus is awesome. Cut carrots and celery and cherry tomatoes make a great takealong snack. Delicious salad dressings can be made without any fats at all. And cabbage soup is actually quite tasty. My daughter and I did a mini research project on what the difference is between a vegetable and a fruit. Aparently a lot of what I've called vegetables are actually fruits by the definition of the word. Tomatoes, cucumbers and squash are all actually fruits! They are the fruit of the plant. Veggies like lettuce and celery and carrots and peas are other parts of the plant, like roots, leaves, stems and seeds.

I also learned about negative calorie foods. These are foods that take more calories to digest than what you ingest while eating them. I found this news the most interesting because I can use it for my lifestyle eating, not for just this temporary diet.